The conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won more seats than expected in parliamentary elections, creating a deeper obligation to the people of Japan, its leader, Shinzo Abe, said Monday. Japan "is in a critical situation" in terms of its economy, education and the recovery of areas struck by 2011's earthquake and tsunami, said Abe expected to be the next prime minister. "We need to get out of it," he said, admitting that his party won Sunday's vote by a bigger margin than predicted. "We, therefore, have a greater responsibility," Abe was quoted as saying by DPA. Abe, who served as prime minister for a year until September 2007, is likely to be elected premier - Japan's seventh in six years - in a special parliamentary session on December 26, media reports said. The LDP won 294 seats Sunday in the lower chamber of the Diet, Monday's final returns showed. Media reports said Abe would form a coalition government with New Komeito, which gained 31 seats. Their two-thirds majority in the powerful 480-seat House of Representatives enables them to override decisions made by the upper house, which is deadlocked after Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) lost control of the chamber in 2010 and no party or coalition won a majority. The DPJ suffered a heavy defeat in Sunday's election, taking 57 seats in the lower house, compared with the 230 seats it held before the election. A record eight ministers, including Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura, lost their parliamentary seats. Noda said he would step down as party leader, taking responsibility for the loss. The newly formed Japan Restoration Party, headed by former Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, won 54 seats while the anti-nuclear Tomorrow Party of Japan, led by Shiga Governor Yukiko Kada, took nine seats. The number of women elected to the House of Representatives fell from 54 to 38. Voter turnout was 59.32 per cent, down 10 percentage points from the 2009 elections, the government said. It set a new record for the worst turnout, beating out 1996's 59.65 per cent. Japanese stocks rose strongly as exporters were bolstered by the yen's fall after the LDP's victory. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 0.94 per cent to close at 9,828.88. Abe said Monday that he would travel to the United States as early as late next month to meet U.S. President Barack Obama.
